Set your chat availability
Define business hours so the widget shows online or away — and never drops a message.
Define business hours so the widget shows online or away — and never drops a message.
Business hours tell the widget when you're available, so visitors get an honest "online" or "away" signal and you're never on the hook for instant replies around the clock.
Business hours live in your widget channel's design settings.
Online vs away
| When | Header status | Message shown |
|---|---|---|
| During business hours | online | Your welcome message |
| Outside business hours | away | Your away message instead of the welcome |
Always the truth. The status is computed on Lunadesk's side from your configured hours — visitors always see it correctly, even if no agent has the Inbox open.
The away message
Write what should greet visitors when you're closed. If you don't set one, Lunadesk uses a sensible default.
Messages are never lost
- ✓Visitors can still write while you're away — the conversation lands in the Inbox as a normal ticket.
- ✓Every chat collects an email, so you can reply by email and the visitor gets it even after they've left your site.
- ✓When they come back, the thread is still there.
No hours set
Leave business hours empty and the widget is always online. Pair this with the live-chat AI (see Automate replies with the AI agent) if you want instant answers without staffing the chat every hour.
Set your business hours once and let the widget tell visitors when you're around.